Thanks! I visited an audiologist for tinnitus a few years ago and I discovered my hearing was reducing in one ear. It made me think what would I do if I lost my hearing? The idea for the story percolated for a few years before I wrote the script. I made Blue Mist to experiment with sound design before my feature film ‘Lola’ about a deaf musician who falls in love with a Punk.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

You will experience what it’s like to be deaf and lost in the wilderness. It also has a beautiful, epic landscape that lends itself nicely to cinema.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

Well, it’s about hearing loss and love. I think most of us have been in love and those of us lucky enough to have our hearing can only imagine the challenges deaf people face in an oral world. I hope the film makes people think twice about their hearing and shines a light on what it’s like to be deaf or hard of hearing.

Blue Mist - Eve lost in the Blue Mountains.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?

The film is almost exactly as I wrote it. We did make one change in the edit, we cut a scene from the beginning and opened on the Blue Mountains landscape. It was originally written to start in a police station and end in a police station but once I was in the edit process I decided with my editor it was better to go on the journey with the characters and experience everything first hand.

Also the sound design really added to the internal and external world of Eve. It really brought to life hearing loss in ways I couldn’t imagine when I was writing it. One of those moments is when Eve is humming to herself in the mountains, it really took us inside her mind. Her world becomes very tactical and visual in the mountains. She relies on her other senses to experience the day once her hearing aids run out of battery.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

Fantastic! We World Premiered in Short Shorts Tokyo in June and the feedback from the audience was really positive. They all want to know what happens to Eve? It’s the number one question I’m always asked everywhere. I created an open ended short to make it feel bigger. I wanted to rent space in people’s mind for a while. I seem to have succeeded.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

It’s surprised me that audiences want to see it as a feature film or TV series. They want more after the short film ends. So maybe I need to get writing that feature script!

Blue Mist - Tom calls for help.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com ?

To raise awareness for hearing loss and deafness. 360 million people around the world have some form of hearing loss and most of us never think about our hearing until it affects us personally.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

All of the above. We would love for more film festival directors to know about the film. It’s really challenging to get your short film seen in the over-saturated festival circuit. For Short Shorts Asia we were chosen out of 6,000 short films to be one of only 34 shorts to screen in competition internationally. That blows my mind that the odds are so slim for your film to be seen.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

I’d love it to stimulate the conversation on hearing loss and deafness. I’d also love for it to have a long life in the festival circuit reaching as many people as possible before the associated novel is published.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

What would you miss if you were deaf?

Blue Mist - Eve and Tom.

Would you like to add anything else?

Yes! Blue Mist is also written into my Young Adult novel ‘Lola’ based on my feature film script. So next year it might find a different audience all over again.

What are the key creatives developing or working on now?

Susie Porter has just landed a feature film ‘Cargo’ opposite Martin Freeman from the Hobbit and Sherlock

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

About the writer, director and producer: Pauline Findlay – writer/director/producer

Pauline Findlay lives in Sydney and is a graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). She has twice been nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild award and is a quarter finalist of the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Her short films have screened at Academy accredited film festivals: Palm Spring ShortFest, FlickerFest Sydney, Short Shorts Asia Japan & Rhode Island (RIFF).

Key cast: Susie Porter, Hayley Sullivan, Ryan Carter

Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists): YES to all the above!

Funders: Self-Funded via Kickstarter campaign

Release date: World Premiere Short Shorts Asia Tokyo June 2016

Where can I watch it in the next month?

Blue Mist is off to Saint-Tropez for the Antipodes Film Festival to play in the short film competition. For up and coming festival screenings go to: www.bluemistfilm.com